Pace, Beaufort Memorial may partner on Bluffton geriatric facility

COLUMBIA — Plans to build a massive geriatric care facility in Bluffton are expected to receive a sizable boost, if a pending partnership is forged with a Beaufort Memorial Hospital subsidiary.

The Pace Healthcare Commons has struggled to raise capital. One financing deal fell apart, which in part forced project developers to ask state regulators for more time.

“The project has had some ups and downs,” Pace executive Brian Cain told the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control board Thursday.

He said a partnership with BMH subsidiary Broad River Healthcare, Inc., could allow them to jointly manage and develop the project and build a stronger base on which to raise capital.

“It gives us much more credibility in financial markets, which are very tough today in terms of scrutinizing how things are put together,” said Cain. “We have been given assurances this will be strong enough to get the funding.”

Responding to Cain’s and his partner Elizabeth Lamkin’s request, the DHEC board granted the project nine-month extensions on two of the four certificates of need.

The real estate costs are pegged at $55 million, but with $25 million in necessary operating capital, the project leaders are estimating it to total in the mid-$90 millions.

The complex is slated for a 16-acre parcel with south frontage on Bluffton Parkway, half a mile from the west termination at S.C. 170.

Beaufort Memorial Hospital officials on Friday could not be reached for comment.

The massive Pace Healthcare, post-acute facility has had various names attached to it, from Sunnyside Healthcare Commons to Beacon Harbor, which confused some DHEC board members Thursday.

Adding to their questions were references in paperwork to a North Carolina firm Pace executives had initially worked with on plans to tap immigrant investors. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services administers a program to stimulate the U.S. economy by allowing foreigners to receive a green card if they chip in $1 million toward a new venture. But Cain said that route remained an option but wasn’t a key focus of their efforts, in part, because of timeline concerns.

As for other costs, he said $50,000-$75,000 were spent on the state’s certificate of need process. CON regulations are in place to control costs, prevent redundant medical facilities and offerings, and ensure that poor, rural communities have accessible care.

The DHEC board’s vote in favor of giving Pace more time is the latest step forward in growing the Bluffon area’s increasingly lush medical landscape.

This month work began on an urgent care facility planned for Buckwalter Place as a partnership between St. Joseph’s/Candler and Georgia Emergency Associates. It’s expected to be open in July.

Also this month, Fraser Construction was given the signal to begin site work at Baylor Drive in Bluffton, where Hilton Head Hospital will open a Bluffton Outpatient Center.

Pace has not been unique in its capital challenges.

In November the state board reluctantly granted Kershaw Health a nine-month extension on its certificate to build an outpatient center. It was the project’s fifth extension.